Chapter 74: Spandam's Shock!
The main plaza of Enies Lobby, usually a pristine expanse of white stone symbolizing absolute order, had transformed into a chaotic grinder of metal and flesh.
The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder and the primal roar of warriors who had been wronged for half a century.
"GABABABABA!"
Brogy the Red Ogre swung his massive axe. The weapon, forged in the fires of Elbaf and tempered by a hundred years of duels, descended with terrifying grace. It cleaved a heavy Marine tank in two as if it were a loaf of bread. The resulting explosion illuminated the sweat and heavy tears streaming down the faces of the two gatekeepers.
"Wh-what?!"
Oimo shouted over the deafening roar of battle. He smashed a squad of fifty Marines into the air with a single swing of his club, but his mind was far away from the violence.
"You've been on Little Garden all this time?! For fifty years?!"
His massive body, towering over the buildings of the judiciary island, trembled. It wasn't from exertion; it was from the sheer, crushing weight of the betrayal.
Fifty years.
Fifty years of rain, sun, and storms. Fifty years of eating meager rations instead of the feasts of Elbaf. Fifty years of bowing their heads to weakling humans like Spandam, believing they were saving their heroes.
It was all a lie. A dirty, dishonorable lie concocted by the World Government.
"Damn it! Damn them to the depths of the sea!" Oimo roared, his voice cracking with heartbreak. "We've been deceived! We guarded their gates like faithful dogs while they laughed at us behind our backs!"
Brogy reached out his large hand. Even amidst the chaos of cannon fire and screaming soldiers, he took a moment to pat Oimo's shoulder heavily. The impact would have crushed a normal human, but to the giant, it was a comforting touch of brotherhood.
"Don't cry, lad!" Brogy grinned, his viking helmet gleaming in the sunlight. "Tears won't wash away the time lost, but blood will wash away the shame!"
He pointed his bloodstained battle-axe toward the towering structure in the distance—the Tower of Justice.
"The past is smoke! The debt is heavy, but we have the coin to pay it back right now! We settle the score today!"
"That's right!" Dorry the Blue Ogre boomed from the left flank. He used his shield to crush a guard tower, sending stone shrapnel flying. "Before we came here, our new Captain gave us a simple, absolute order: Turn Enies Lobby upside down! Leave no stone standing! Reclaim your honor!"
"New... new Captain?"
Kashi and Oimo froze mid-swing. They looked at each other, confusion momentarily overriding their rage. Then they looked back at their invincible leaders. Their brains struggled to process the information.
The Giant Warrior Pirates served no one. They were the kings of Elbaf, the terror of the seas. Who could possibly command them?
"Captains," Kashi stammered, ignoring the bullets pinging off his armor. "You... you joined another pirate crew? You serve a human? Is he a giant among men?"
"It's a long story!" Dorry interrupted, his laugh echoing like thunder. His gaze sharpened as he looked toward the swarm of reinforcements pouring out of the residential district like a colony of disturbed white ants. "And a good one! But we'll talk over a barrel of ale after we deal with this trash!"
At this moment, the ground began to vibrate rhythmically.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Countless Marine soldiers were pouring out from the inner island, crossing the bridge like a river of white uniforms. The alarm had fully roused the island's defenses. Five thousand elite soldiers. The Law Enforcement Troops. The best the government had to offer outside of the Grand Line bases.
Guns and cannons formed a forest of steel. The sheer number of enemies was staggering. Even the powerful giants couldn't help but look solemn. They were strong, undeniably so, but even a lion can be killed by a million ants if he is careless.
"There's too many of them!" Oimo yelled, gripping his club. "We need to form a phalanx! Protect the Captains!"
However, in this atmosphere of deadly tension and rising noise, a figure walked past them.
He didn't run. He didn't shout. He didn't even look like he belonged on a battlefield.
He walked as if he were strolling through a quiet moonlit garden, his hands buried deep in the pockets of his white uniform.
A lean, pale figure. Small. Insignificant compared to the mountains of muscle behind him.
Ulquiorra Cifer.
He walked silently past the towering forms of the giants, his footsteps making no sound on the cobblestones. He stood calmly before the approaching army of five thousand men.
The cold stillness emanating from him was completely out of place with the fervent, hot atmosphere of the battlefield. It was like a drop of absolute zero falling into the heart of a volcano. It was unnatural. It was terrifying.
"Huh?" Kashi blinked, lowering his massive head to see the tiny man who had stepped in front of them. "Captain Dorry, who is this little—"
"Shut up, Kashi!" Dorry immediately reprimanded him, his voice dropping to a low, respectful rumble that vibrated in Kashi's chest. "Do not be rude!"
Dorry looked at the small back of Ulquiorra with a mixture of genuine wariness and deep respect. He remembered the spar they had on the ship. He remembered the feeling of helplessness.
"This is Mr. Ulquiorra. He is an Executive in our crew. And listen to me closely, Kashi... his strength far surpasses ours. Show him the respect you would show a King of Elbaf."
"St-stronger than you Captains?!" Oimo's jaw dropped, hitting his chest armor with a clang.
Ulquiorra didn't acknowledge the giants' conversation. His emerald, hollow eyes calmly swept over the dense crowd of thousands of Marines rushing toward him. They were screaming, firing guns, waving swords, their faces twisted in the fanaticism of 'Absolute Justice.'
To him, they were dust.
"Trash," Ulquiorra whispered. His voice was flat, devoid of any emotion, yet it carried across the plaza. "Although they are weak... their sheer numbers are indeed annoying. They clutter my vision."
He stopped walking.
"I will handle this."
Facing this calm declaration, Dorry and Brogy—warriors who would challenge the world for pride—nodded simultaneously without hesitation. They knew their place in the hierarchy of power within the Suzaku Pirates.
"We'll leave it to you, Mr. Ulquiorra!" they boomed, stepping back to give him space.
The Marines charged, unaware of the entity they were rushing toward.
"Kill the intruder! He's alone! Take him down!"
Ulquiorra didn't move a muscle. He didn't draw his sword. He simply... released.
HUMMMMMMMM.
It wasn't a sound. It was a vibration of the soul.
A cold, ethereal, and immensely heavy pressure erupted from Ulquiorra's lean body. It wasn't the hot, dominating charisma of a Pirate King's Conqueror's Haki that demanded submission.
It was the suffocating, crushing emptiness of a Hollow's Reiatsu.
It swept outward like an invisible tsunami of despair. The air grew heavy, tasting of iron and ash. The temperature plummeted.
"Ugh... ah...!"
The charging Marines at the front froze mid-step. Their pupils dilated. Their instincts screamed that they were standing in the presence of a predator from another dimension.
Their eyes rolled back into their heads instantly. Foam spilled from their mouths as their nervous systems shut down in self-defense.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Where the pressure passed, consciousness was extinguished.
One second, five thousand soldiers were roaring with battle cries. The next, they fell like puppets whose strings had been cut.
It looked like a field of wheat being harvested by an invisible scythe. Bodies hit the floor in unison, the sound of armor clattering against stone echoing like a singular, massive drumbeat of defeat.
In the blink of an eye, the entire first wave—thousands of elites—was unconscious.
Silence returned to Enies Lobby. A heavy, oppressive silence.
"..."
Kashi and Oimo stared, their eyes bulging. They had seen strong men before. They had seen Haki users. But this... this felt like Death itself walking past them.
[Tower of Justice - Chief's Office]
This scene was clearly reflected in the wide, terrified eyes of Spandam, who was nervously observing the battle through a window in the Tower of Justice.
His coffee cup slipped from his hand.
CRASH.
The ceramic shattered on the floor, spilling hot liquid over his expensive shoes, but he didn't even flinch. He couldn't look away from the plaza.
"Ha... Ha... Haki?" Spandam stammered, his voice trembling uncontrollably. He clutched the windowsill until his fingernails broke.
"Conqueror's Haki?! And such a powerful one... he took out the entire Law Enforcement Squad in one second?! Who is that guy?!"
Fortunately, the astonishing aura did not reach the Tower of Justice physically, but the visual impact was enough to shatter Spandam's fragile courage into a million pieces.
"A guy with the aura of a king! A monster! Damn it!" Spandam shrieked, turning away from the window, hyperventilating.
"No wonder they dared to attack! They have a monster leading the monsters! This isn't a raid; it's a massacre!"
His mind raced. If they reached the tower... if they found him...
"No... I can't stay here! The tower isn't safe! The island isn't safe! I'm the Chief! I'm important!"
Extreme fear overwhelmed all responsibility and decorum. He forgot about his promotion to CP9 Chief. He forgot about the Pluton blueprints he was hunting for. He only remembered one thing: Survival.
"Chief! Where are you going?!" his personal guards shouted as he bolted for the door.
"To the ship! Idiots! Protect me!"
Spandam scrambled out of his office like a startled rat, tripping over his own feet in his haste. He fled down the secret corridors, heading toward the rear port where his private escape vessel was docked.
Minutes later, he stood on the deck of his personal warship, panting heavily. The cold metal hull under his feet gave him a shred of pitiful security.
"Set sail! Get us out of here!" Spandam screamed at the navigators, his mask crooked, his hair disheveled.
However, as the engines roared to life and the ship began to pull away from the dock, his panic morphed into a vicious, petty spite.
He looked back at the island. He saw the Giants marching toward the tower. He saw the ruins of his jurisdiction.
"It's all because of them!" Spandam stomped his foot like a petulant child. "They ruined my career! If headquarters investigates, I'm finished! I abandoned my post! I lost Enies Lobby!"
A crazy, desperate idea formed in his twisted mind. If he couldn't save the island, he would destroy the evidence. He would kill the invaders himself and claim victory from the ashes.
"Fire the cannons!" Spandam roared, pointing a shaking finger at the center of the island. "Target the Main Plaza! Fire everything we have! Carpet bomb the area!"
"S-sir!" a subordinate stammered, looking at the monitor. "There are still thousands of our colleagues on the island! They're just unconscious! Friendly fire will kill them!"
"SHUT UP!" Spandam slapped the soldier across the face. His face was distorted with madness and fear. "They failed to stop the enemy! That is dereliction of duty! Their sacrifice is required for Absolute Justice! FIRE! THAT IS AN ORDER!"
Under his forceful, hysterical command, the gunners obeyed.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Several heavy cannonballs, whistling mournfully, streaked across the sky. They arced high, plummeting toward the center of the island—directly toward Ulquiorra and the field of unconscious Marines.
[Main Plaza]
Ulquiorra stood still amidst the sea of bodies. He didn't look up. He simply sensed the movement in the air before the sound even arrived.
His sensory abilities were far beyond simple Observation Haki. He could feel the air displacement.
He tilted his head slightly, his hollow eyes tracking the trajectory of the projectiles without interest.
"Noisy."
He muttered the word softly.
His left hand moved to his waist. His thumb clicked the guard of his katana, Murciélago.
He didn't draw it fully. He didn't assume a stance. He simply unsheathed it half an inch, exposing a sliver of the blade.
Cling.
He flicked his wrist.
"Cero Oscuras (Visualized as Sword Pressure)."
BUZZ...!
A highly condensed, glowing green crescent of energy shot out from the scabbard. It wasn't a normal flying slash; it crackled with an alien power that distorted the light around it.
The green crescent tore through the sky with a high-pitched hum.
It grazed the incoming cannonballs. There was no explosion. The cannonballs simply disintegrated into dust instantly, erased from existence by the density of the energy.
Then, with undiminished momentum, the slash crossed the sea at extreme speed.
It flew straight toward the fleeing warship on the horizon.
[Rear Port - On the Sea]
Spandam was laughing as the cannons fired, a manic, desperate cackle. "Take that! Die! Die!"
Then he saw it. A thin green line on the horizon, growing larger by the millisecond.
"What is th—"
SLASH.
There was no sound of impact. Just the sound of separation.
The green light passed through the warship effortlessly.
For a second, nothing happened. The world seemed to pause.
Then, the ship groaned.
CREAAAAK... BOOM!!!
The sturdy Marine battleship split perfectly down the middle. The steel hull, the masts, the engine room—everything was cleaved in two with surgical precision. The two halves fell away from each other, water rushing into the gap with a roar.
"WAAAAAAH!"
Spandam screamed as the deck tilted violently beneath him. He slid toward the churning water, his fingers scrabbling uselessly against the polished wood.
"I can't swim! Help! Someone help me!"
In the nick of time, he grabbed the hilt of the sword at his waist.
"Funkfreed! Save me!"
The sword—a strange object that had "eaten" the Elephant-Elephant Fruit (Zou Zou no Mi)—instantly transformed.
The blade elongated, turning into a grey, wrinkled trunk. The hilt grew legs and heavy ears.
The elephant-sword extended its long trunk, wrapping it tightly around Spandam's waist.
YOINK!
Funkfreed launched Spandam like a catapult, flinging him away from the sinking vortex of the ship and onto a large piece of driftwood floating nearby.
"Gah!"
Spandam landed hard, coughing up seawater. He clung to the driftwood, shivering uncontrollably in the cold ocean. He looked back at his destroyed ship sinking into the depths, taking his subordinates with it.
He looked toward the island, his eyes wide with absolute terror.
"What... what kind of monster is that?!" he wept, teeth chattering. "He cut the ship... from the island?!"
As Spandam shivered in the cold seawater, he saw something else.
High in the distant sky, tearing through the clouds above the Gates of Justice.
A dark red streak of light was approaching at supersonic speed. It was rushing toward Enies Lobby like a falling star, burning with an intensity that promised even greater destruction.
"What now?!" Spandam wailed, clutching his elephant-sword. "What else could possibly happen?!"
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